A keynote of Friendship
by slayer123bio
Summary: The sound four are ninjas that are slowly losing their humanity but a powerful force will do everything in its power to keep them together. A story full of action, drama and development of the sound four.
1. Home is where the heart is

**Home is where the heart is**

*Possible song suggestion: Scrape by Blue stahli*

"You," the sound of a fist impacting flesh was almost drowned out by the miserable downpour of a summer shower. "Mother," There followed the sound of cracking ribs was next to follow as the fist was repeatedly slammed into the poor victim.

Sakon panted as he stopped hitting the young man who had decided to show him up by not being caught in Sakon's' new jutsu'. Though it would not change the boy's predicament, it would be important to note that this was actually the sixth time this 'new jutsu' had failed… in a row…, since conception. As such, Sakon had decided, instead of killing the target like he had done to the previous five, to beat the target to death.

Sakon gripped the boy by his shirt before throwing him across the muddy grass in frustration. The boy rolled and flipped by the chakra enforced throw only to crash into Jirobo's immovable legs. Jirobo did not even notice the impact as he looked over an arm of some nameless pharmacist who was currently being tortured by Orochimaru in cave not too far off. The boy pulled himself up onto his hands and knees, tears streaming down his face in hopelessness and agony. It had been a fool's gambit to try and trick Orochimaru into falling for that poisoned medicine, his sister had paid the price along with his fellow pharmacists.

He breathed in inconsistently as he rose up onto one knee. Despite his fate, he wanted to stand up to Orochimaru's henchmen, he wanted to go out fighting in any way he could, he wanted to stand up to them, to stand up for what his friends and family had died to protect, sacrificed-

Sakon ran up to the boy, used his left leg to step on the boy's right knee as jump off point before snapping his right leg upward with all his might.

"Fucker!" The young boy's head, literally, left his shoulders and went sailing into the air. It was amazing how far it went, so far, in fact, that it wound up hitting Tayuya in the back of the head as she was on the look-out. Tayuya snapped her head around in seething anger, eyes full of bloodlust as she looked for the assailant.

"Stay focused, Tayuya," Kimimaro reminded her from his position not too far from her. She sent him a withering look which he returned and held with a blank expression, an expression she eventually gave into whilst spitting in annoyance.

Tayuya had been notably angry all day due to the nature of the mission they were on. One of Kabuto's suppliers had been giving him harmful drugs in the guise of curative medicine for a few weeks now, but due to the nature of delivery, it had been hard to track them down. Unfortunately the pharmacists had come from a clan that, apparently, was tight knit with her old clan before it was eradicated. Though healthy for a ninja, Tayuya did not appreciate having her loyalty tested by killing all the women and children of the clan with her bare hands. To be fair, she should not have expected anything less from Orochimaru, or more appropriately, Kabuto, who had made the suggestion. _That four-eyed piece of fucking shit_ she thought darkly, grinding her teeth in growing anger.

Orochimaru was currently in a cave, the base of the pharmacist's operation, 'talking' to elders of the clan. You could make out how well the conversation was going by what tools Orochimaru threw of the cave.

"I'm fine, how are you?" A bloody Kunai

"Funny weather we're having," A House knife

"Is something wrong?" A high grade katana, now broken

"Don't worry, you can tell me anything," A rusty spoon

"One thing at a time," A metal pipe

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," Chisel

"Is that it? I expected more…" Mallet

"You're hiding something." An empty vile of sulphuric acid

"Thank you for telling me," A white hot knife with dried blood on it

"See ya later!" an empty case of explosive tags.

Orochimaru left the cave while rolling his shoulder and cracking his neck into an odd angle, to the casual observer who had never met or knew anything about the man, one would think he just got done having sex. Tayuya mentally shivered in fear on what his version of sex actually was, thankfully, he seemed to like boys more than girls.

Kidomaru jumped down from nowhere and landed beside her, soundless, like a spider. He glanced her over with an oddly void expression, she had to avoid raising her guard at that, Kidomaru had a knack for smiling too much, more so than that pubescent freak, Sakon, so it was odd to see him without. Kidomaru reached into his back pack and pulled out a flute and forcibly handed it her causing her to fumble and almost drop it, she would have hit him with an insult if he had decided to wait for a response. She glanced over her shoulder as he landed down by Orochimaru to report on the success of his other mission before glancing back at the flute. She already knew what it truly was before Kidomaru gave it to her, she was slightly surprised he knew what it was and what it might have meant to her.

The Seimei no Kashou ichizoku or the Song of life clan, was a peace loving clan that used their music to send people into therapeutic illusions. They were a traveling clan, not based in any particular land or village but known throughout the world, a number of the great hidden villages often hired out their services to help those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Tayuya had always been a bit of a problem child there, she was set to be the clan head once she reached the required age and mastered either the Minteki or Seiteki.

There was one flute, however, that was forbidden in the clan to be used, even for self-defensive purposes. The Mateki: a demonic flute of unrivalled power and evil, able to send anyone who listened to its horrid melody into a hellish dream. Tayuya never understood why bother having a flute no one was allowed to use, it was ridiculous. She would regularly steal it to play small pranks on her fellow clan members and once on a group of stone ninjas…

She pocketed the Mateki with conflicting emotions, should she go and thank him, ignore him, tell him to go eat a dick? It was one of those moments that went pass simple pride, the sound five did not operate on consideration, it was something more like effectiveness, if one of them died then it would weaken there battle potential, while on other hand, if one of them grew strong so would the rest. So, based on that way of thinking, did Kidomaru give her this as a selfless act of increased effectiveness or…

"Tayuya!" Kimimaro repeated for the fourth time not two inches away from her face. She gasped before shooting her hands out to grab onto him to stop herself from falling off the tree she was perched on. She breathed a sigh of relief before looking back up into his face, a face that was neither amused nor annoyed, just expectant. "The others are waiting for us, let's go," He hopped off the branch and Tayuya paled in fear of having kept Orochimaru waiting.

Tayuya followed him with her head lowered and was relieved when the remaining sound members and Orochimaru just continued on their pace without so much as a glance. She reached into her pack and pulled out the Mateki, it brought some interesting memories.

X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

A ten year old Tayuya sat in an after bath kimono as two clan maids fussed over her long and beautiful hair. The young Tayuya was focused on a scroll detailing a score for a melody that her mother would play this week with the Seiteki for the Raikage and his entourage. Apparently the Raikage's little brother was looking for different musical styles to help with his own musical conquest.

A servant came in with a small plate of Mizu-yokan, a very sweet desert and Tayuya's favourite dish. Usually, Tayuya was forbidden from having any sweets by her mother as she believed children with dirty mouths did not deserve sweets. Understandable as Tayuya had inherited her late father's sailor like tongue, she was still lacking creativity but the fact a young, beautiful ten year old girl was using four letter words in her vocabulary was a good substitute.

She cut into one of the five pieces with a spoon before bringing it to her mouth for a healthy bite. She let the Yokan float on her tongue as her cheeks fizzled with the sweet and sour taste. "Mmmm," She hummed as her eyes watered at the sweetness of yokan, her face changed to colour a that almost matched her hair.

"Swallow," was the command she instantly followed. Tayuya looked up through squinted eyes at her mother who was dressed in a white silk kimono with a red and black floral pattern on the hem and left sleeve. Her mother's hair was a lighter pink than her own and she had green eyes instead of Tayuya's brown.

Her mother glanced down at Tayuya's lips and she wet her thumb before kneeling down and rubbing some yokan off the corner off her daughters lips. "Thanks, mom, you have no idea how much I wanted to give Akiba a mouthful-"

"Earful," Her mother corrected as the servants prepared a cushion for Tayuya's mother while nail polish and make-up was brought in. Tayuya frowned; she always thought cosmetics detracted from her mother's shining looks, like she was dampening her beauty since father's death. Her mother noticed the look and smiled disarmingly. "It's only for this night; I have to act since one of the actresses is ill. Though, it sure would be a load off if I could focus on this and instead of a certain someone…" She said casually looking away, watching her daughter from the corner of her eye.

Tayuya displayed a cute pout as she stabbed her spoon into the Yokan. She looked up as her mother, the matriarch, sighed at her daughters stubbornness. She watched as her mother held out her hand expectantly as if waiting to receive a gift. Tayuya looked away but her face was corrected back into position by one of the maids working her hair. Tayuya's gaze was returned back to her mother who smirked at her daughter.

Tayuya huffed in defeat, looking away as she reached into her kimono and pulled out a scroll, this earned a look of surprise from her mother before it turned into shock as the scroll opened up with a summoning sign painted on it. The kanji for 'Ma –魔' and 'Teki -笛' were brushed onto the paper with a rat seal painted in red on top. Tayuya sent her mother a mischievous grin before performing the rat hand seal and within an instant of creating the seal the demonic flute appeared on top of the scroll with the kanji disappearing.

She looked up at the shocked expression on her mother which changed from shocked, to impressed, to prideful before turning stern. "I am impressed that you learnt how to seal objective into scrolls, Tayuya, but this is the third time this month you have stolen the Mateki, it's not a toy." She lectured disapprovingly.

Tayuya frowned and folded her arms defensively, directing her anger towards the table; she almost hit the maid than had combed through a stubborn knot in her hair. "Why the fu-" her mother hit her on the head with the Mateki in discipline. "Why in the hell do we even keep something we're not allowed to use…ever!" She asked making various omissions to keep the question as clean as Tayuyaly possible.

It was her mother's turn to fold her arms at her daughter. "You don't need to know that, Tayuya. What you do need to know is that mommy is getting wary of talking down the elders from punishing you for breaking the rules. I know you want attention, I know you miss your father," That one hit hard, "And I know you want to play alongside me, but there are ways to achieve these things, to get pass them. Remember Tayuya, these rules are here to protect you and others who may be hurt by breaking them."

The maids stepped away, done with combing the devil that was Tayuya's hair and her mother moved up to bring her daughter into a loving embrace. She sensed Tayuya tearing up as she hugged her mother back.

"I love you, Tayuya," Her mother said, putting her entire feelings into those words, words that reached Tayuya.

"I love you too, mommy,"

X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

Tayuya sat in her high armed chair, more like a throne than anything else. It was white with faded red arms and with a blue and red Rose design decorating its rest, she got it for the obvious visual connection it had with her mother.

She sat in the sound five's resting room with the other five members. Sakon was busy painting some kind of god like creature on the room's walls while Ukon was signing a scroll Orochimaru had given the pair. Jirobo was playing a game of chess with one of Kidomaru's spiders, Akai, trying to win a best nine out of twelve with a zero point lead. Kidomaru himself was reading a dirty magazine with a very graphic cover of two women and one man. Kimimaro was reading a cooking guide on making a medicine that would help combat his illness.

The resting room, also known as the sound room due to it being completely quiet of filled with the sound or a multi-argument, was where the sound five congregated when not on a mission. The other sound ninja had been forbidden, by Sakon of course, to enter the room at all, any who _dared_, since none had actually done it, had been the subject of Sakon's many 'new jutsu's'. The last time a sound ninja dared to try their luck at entering the resting room they had wound up with their trachea coming out of their eye. Even Kimimaro had got into it; he had nailed the skin of a ninja to the left of the door and the still living ninja on the other side.

The rest room was where the sound five hung out, or as much as you could in this group. It was where they brought personal effects, trophies of war, literature, weapons, furniture, hell, they even ate together here. They were not allowed to have too many personal items in their room all thanks to that stupid piece of shit Sakon who, for some reason, thought it funny to bring fart gas into the base. He had stepped on it and had stunk out the base for a month which eventually led to discovery. The only reason Sakon was not dead or dying right now was because he blamed it on another sound ninja and ripped the tongue out of said ninja so he could not defend himself.

Regardless, the rest room was very big, the size of two living rooms with an upper level and a lower level. The rest room used to be bare before Jirobo brought back a conference table onto the upper level, unfortunately, the table was too high for them to sit around. Ukon was next to bring in his own stool to utilize the table while also establishing some form of social achievement. Kidomaru was next to bring in his own stool after 'finding' it, this had set himself and Ukon apart by being able to sit at the conference table like they were adults in a room full of children. The other three only truly began to invest in it when Kimimaro came in with a white fluffy couch that he could lean and melt into at the head of the table. Tayuya beat Jirobo and Sakon with the throne she was currently seated in which she had got after forcing the king of some kingdom to personally repaint his throne before making him bring it to the sound room, which, by default, meant he had to die. Jirobo took second to last humbly with a traditional red war stool.

Sakon, however, was a scumbag sore loser who had gone out of his way to find the most expensive chair he could find dying its original yellow with the blood of every family member of the daimyo who had owned it and making his children bring it into the room who, by default for entering their room, were killed. He then had gone out of his way to make a point about how he was the leader of the sound five, Kimimaro not even paying attention, and how he was the first person to come up with the chair idea. Honestly, out of respect for Ukon, who would not look at his brother at the time, everyone just kept their mouths shut and accepted it, Sakon would make it personal anyway.

Tayuya had really got into bringing things in to decorate the rest room. She had brought in paints to change the room from its vomit grey to a soft cream colour. She then followed by bringing in candles and lampshades to decorate the room at night before starting off a trophy craze by bringing in a silver statue of a wolf.

Jirobo had caught on fast and had brought in a stone statue of a Wolverine; he was the most proud because he made it out of his own chakra and time. It was a shame he could quite admit to the fact he had spent days making it only to impress everyone else, that would look weak, and Sakon was too much of a dick head to let it go.

Kidomaru had brought in a spider statue which he had stolen from the land of the spiders, he made use of the henge jutsu to pose as Midori, a well-known spider, and steal it from Kyoudaigumo's chambers, he just hoped nothing bad would come of it.

It was quite a surprise when Ukon came in with an Emerald Salamander, not because of what he chose or how he got, he asked Orochimaru if you can believe that, but because he bothered at all. Ukon was the most mysterious of the sound members of all, even to his brother. This was due to Ukon's fascination in a kumo-nin he read about named Kinkaku who believed silence was golden and speech destructive. One could not deny that if you had a brother like Sakon then that was more than understandable. Ukon never seemed to care what happened inside of the sound five group, he rarely showed that he cared about anything. When he had got a seat for the table he had done that out of necessity, this was much different, and there was no true practicality in it. Ukon was a practical boy, utilitarian in nature, almost to an aggravating fault.

Sakon was last to bring a statue in, again, though, this time, it was part of the plan…, bullshit! Apparently, he was basing his lack of presentable statue as saving the best for last, his words, and as always, he failed to impress simply because of delivery. If this has not been noted already then it must be stated clearly now, Sakon lived and breathed killing people. The sound five did not wait in the base waiting for orders or missions like one would expect, no, they would regularly leave the base to do their own thing and for Sakon this was to kill people. The more creative, the setting; castle, house, fortress and the more creative the target, family man, merchant, bandit leader, politician, religious figure and finally the circumstance, eating, sleeping, sleeping with spouse, charity event, relaxing, swimming, the better it was for him. Because of Sakon's killing habits, since it was only thing he could really do on his own without causing it to backfire on everyone but him, this made how Sakon manage turn up with a suspiciously ruby orca statue unsurprising. The statue was suspicious because it was too sparkly, shinny, to be ruby. Sakon had been very vocal in making sure no one touched his statue.

Ukon had done exactly the opposite to find out that the statue was made out of diamond, it was just stained in blood… diamond, stained in blood, just think about that for a moment, how do you wanage to stain diamond in blood? This would seem a bit ridiculous if the other sound members did not know of the mission to prepare eight batches of sacrifices to Manda, which, by the way, was one hundred sacrifices a batch.

Tayuya glanced over towards the statues that were arranged in the middle of the lower level placed in a circle facing outwards, Kimimaro had been kind enough to put each on a pedestal. Kimimaro had not bought in a statue but he seemed to enjoy looking them over from time to time.

Tayuya had decided to pretend that Kidomaru had never gave her the flute and he rightly had expected nothing more, things would get too complicated and there was also Sakon to worry about. Sakon had been getting, well, territorial over his possessions and this, somehow, included Tayuya much to her annoyance. She could only guess his hormones were starting up and since she was really the only female he was close to on a regular basis or did not kill, he was thus directing that growing tension onto her. Tayuya reasoned this as a good and bad thing, bad; because it was Sakon and he was a bit over the top when he felt threatened in some way. Good; because the other male members of the sound team would have to get through Sakon to get to her and that gave her some measure of comfort since Sakon did not even know what he wanted from her or any further relationship those wants could inspire. To put it simply, Sakon was running off a 'if I can't have her neither can you' mentality.

Thankfully, Tayuya did not want to really speak with the other sound members, Sakon's attitude made it so that speaking about anything that you could not relate to violence would make you look like a pussy and he would go out of his way to crucify you for it. Still, she was getting a bit tired of not being able to talk to anyone and the only way to do it legitimately in the sound five was to do it with a lot of bravado and curses.

She let her chakra slip into her fingers and into the demonic flute; she could feel its power resonate in return. It was really the last item she had of her mother, her family and clan. She had to admit that she heavily considered destroying it, emotional attachment for a ninja was dangerous, if more so with the bad things that apparently accompany the flute.

Still, despite all the reasons she could come up with she never felt even a silver of energy to act upon her reasoning. In fact, she felt the need to keep it safe a priority, more so than her life, not to mention there were also the combat enhancing skills that came with it. She was not a born and raised ninja, hand seals, ninjutsu, taijutsu, ninja tools and fuinjutsu, were far off concepts before she met up with Orochimaru and the other sound members.

She always knew she had exceptional chakra control and her natural affinity to genjutsu was further solidified when she learned two of them from Orochimaru within a day, impressing him enough to put her in the Sound Four unit he was creating. She needed this flute, this Mateki and it needed her, she could sense it, sense her mother.

"Hey guys," everyone looked up towards Sakon who was by the entrance. "Come out and train with me, I want to try out this new jutsu I've been practicing for a few weeks now," He said in a way that made it sound less of a request and more like an order.

Tayuya almost stayed put before Kimimaro ordered the rest to go and train to strengthen the sound four to make up for his absence, though, he made it sound almost like a joke, like they were incapable of filling the gap he left… he would not be wrong if that were true. Tayuya looked down towards the Mateki before feeling suddenly happy for the opportunity to test out her flute.

She needed more confidence in her abilities if she were going to survive, if she wanted to meet Orochimaru's approval and the acceptance of the other sound members. Even though she never liked Sakon she would make sure to show him some form of gratitude after this little training session, and she had to admit to being a bit curious as to what this new jutsu was.


	2. The sound of chaos

**The sound of chaos**

"Tayuya, Shut the fuck up!"

Tayuya abruptly stopped eyes wide. She had been following Ukon, giving him an earful about messing up the sound four's battle exercise. Sakon, Ukon's little brother, had thought it clever to incorporate a line of explosive tags to his repertoire, a move the other sound three had agreed to. The only problem was that Sakon was not proficient in ninja tools, especially ones that took a great deal of grace and control. Sakon liked to run his mouth and talk about things and accomplishments he had never achieved, accomplishments he was not equal to.

The stringed explosive tags had caught on Sakon's ninja sandals and Ukon had to rip off the sandal along with the tags and throw them away. They had landed on the roof of one of the storage rooms and the resulting explosion collapsed the building and a good portion of Kabuto's medicines.

Orochimaru's supplies had been safe but not so for Kimimaro's. Even though Tayuya did not like Kimimaro, she did respect his power and this mess up had now cost the sound four two days' worth of food and detention in their rooms. Sakon seemed to be the only one to get away from the situation with no problems at all.

With the other two in lock down and Sakon out on a tailing mission, Tayuya could only vent towards the one person who looked like the boy who got her into this mess. Tayuya had been under Orochimaru for some two years compared to Sakon and Ukon who had served him since they could talk. Sakon was the most talkative of the two, usually talking about how he was not a virgin or his battle record or his library of ninjutsu, all seemingly seen, taught and mastered from the same place; his ass.

Ukon only spoke when he had to. Ukon was a firm believer in 'if you have nothing nice to say, don't say it at all' and Ukon never had anything nice to say. For that reason, when had shouted at her to, not so politely, be quiet, she had jumped and clamped down. Perhaps by some unspoken law, everyone knew that Ukon was stronger than Sakon, and that Ukon hid a lot more than he showed, perhaps even from his brother.

"You're quite vocal today," Kabuto chirped from the shadows. The two turned their head at Kabuto's sudden appearance. He held some very sharp, very bloody scalpels in his right hand while his left hand carried a severed head by the hair, a head that was chattering with a look of pure horror on its face. "I have orders from Orochimaru-sama," he informed with an easy grin.

'_Four-eyed freak, the hell is it now?_' Tayuya thought with disgust as the head stopped chattering. Kabuto glanced at the head, raising it slightly to take a proper look, as if seeing it for the first time. _'The fuck?'_

"Orders…?" Ukon prompted, placing a hand on his hip. Ukon appreciated it when people got to the point, anything else was wasting time and if you wasted Ukon's time then he was going to waste yours. The difference would be how much screaming, blood and snapping bones there was.

"Some of our new Ninja have failed their mission and instead of dying on the field or returning here to be… repurposed…" There was a wicked smile on his face as he said that which caused the hairs on Tayuya's neck to stand up before she glanced at Ukon. Ukon had the oddest expression on his face; it looked like a mixture of boredom mixed with fury and a pinch of restraint. "Instead, they have run off to a village with a scroll of great importance to Orochimaru-sama and he'll need his guards with him when he goes to retrieve it."

"What's in the scroll?" Tayuya asked. Ukon looked at her as if she had just asked what God was. The urge to smack her silent was dominating inside of him; he could almost feel the impact of his palm against her face for asking such a stupid question. It was neither her place nor her right to ask that, he was a little surprised to hear an answer from Kabuto.

"One hundred comatose sacrifices for Manda, it took four months to find that many and even longer to capture them. Thankfully we did not need to capture them in one piece." He glanced at the two before moving pass them. "Inform the other two, Kidomaru will be in charge of this one, see ya"

Tayuya watched him disappear into the darkness before turning to Ukon who was already going to get ready. She was about to say something before he beat her to it. "You tell Kidomaru and Jirobo, I'm going to get ready," he ordered before jumping up to the above balcony and leaving Tayuya to grind her teeth.

"Damn it,"

A flash and then a rumble forced Kidomaru to glance up at the sky. It was pissing it down, which matched Kidomaru's mood, he was still angry at Sakon for the battle exercise mess up. As second in command of the sound four, it was his job to make sure nothing went wrong and to keep everyone on task. Sakon was a sack of shit who gave orders while using his middle finger to search out his ass for another tall tale of how big his dick was in order to get into Tayuya's shorts.

He glanced behind him at his entourage; Orochimaru was in the middle of a circular formation with Jirobo behind covering the rear. Tayuya to the left being as useless as ever, how she ever managed to get into sound four was beyond him, he thought Orochimaru only swung towards boys. At the very least he could not say she got on her knees for the assignment. Ukon was on the right and was a God send compared to that boy toy Orochimaru called the leader of the sound four; Sakon.

They were jumping among the trees with the water pounding down on them and that made Kidomaru even angrier as he _knew_ Sakon was following some girl in the land of fire with the warm sun shining down, chirping birds, running sea blue river and, if Sakon did not mess it up, the death of a whore who could not keep her legs closed.

They were following the trail of the two sound ninja who were to be killed on sight. Kidomaru glanced at his middle right arm at the blue snake wrapped around it. The snake was the thing tracking the chakra signatures, Hebi-kun was his name and he could track the chakra signature of anyone he bit. The only bad thing about being bit by Hebi-kun was that the people it bit got their chakra reserves cut in half due to his venomous chakra. It was common debate whether hebi-kun's purpose was tracking or draining with the latter being something Orochimaru thought up.

A hiss from Hebi-kun told him they were close but outside of detection range. He held up a hand to stop the group, while at the same time he bit his thumb and went through a set of seals; **[Dog, Monkey, Horse, Dog, Snake] **"**Kuchiyose no Jutsu: Amimono Sousei**/Summoning technique: Brothers of the web," From the smoke two pure white blue fanged spiders appeared. They were both the size of a lion but one had red eyes while the other had green.

"That was timing Kidomaru, my mate was this close from eating me," The spider with green eyes said moving a leg up to rub its eyes. "That bitch, after all I gave her and this is how she repays me." It cried

Kidomaru smirked at the spider before getting back to business. "Akai-san, Midori-Dai-onii-sama," He paused as Tayuya broke out laughing. Akai only required Kidomaru to give him partial respect while Midori had a bit of an ego and inferiority complex. This meant he needed a name to compensate for his self-imposed inferiority. The Amimono Sousei were brothers; spiders that could sense every movement any creature could or would make in a circumference of some thirty miles, they were venomous to touch among other abilities afforded to them and battle experienced. "There are two sound Shinobi hiding further up ahead in a valley, I need you to map the place out, find all traps, and escape routes and what they are doing."

Akai used a leg to smack Midori before turning, crouching and then puffing into a million, trillion baby spiders. Midori wiped its eyes before bursting into tears "Oh God!" He cried before merging with a tree and disappearing into it.

Kidomaru glanced at the others and noted Tayuya's repulsed look, Orochimaru's amused expression, Jirobo's interest and then to Ukon who seemed to be on the lookout. "Orochimaru-sama?" He inquired, wondering what he wanted to do once they found the sound-nin.

Orochimaru sent a critical look Kidomaru's way. The boy was proficient enough to be the leader of the sound four, but alas, the boy preferred to be led than lead, typical of a second in command. Before he could voice his thoughts Midori appeared as if he had always been there causing Tayuya to almost scream if Ukon had not covered her mouth.

"The sound ninja have joined…" Midori's eyes started to get teary again, "Joined, just like me and Kyoudaigumo before she betrayed me!" This earned a sigh of frustration from Ukon who seemed to be contemplating how to best dispatch the spider.

"Focus Midori, I really need your help here, uh, Midori-Dai-Onii-sama," Kidomaru corrected

"They've joined ooohh… They've joined up with a caravan using henge to appear as an old man and woman." The spider used its back legs to spin a napkin out of its webbing before bringing it to its mouth in emotional anguish.

Kidomaru glanced at Orochimaru who seemed to be contemplating their next move. Midori merged with the tree again with a wail at the loss of his one and true love. Orochimaru nodded towards Kidomaru who quickly signalled Jirobo before turning his gaze to Ukon and Tayuya, the unknown and the useless.

Jirobo jumped down to the ground and quickly ran to a clearing that overlooked a valley full of old decaying ruins covered in green moss. It was odd because of how the green covered the land in the shape of claw of some kind, as if Mother Nature was taking back what was rightfully hers. Jirobo quickly jumped halfway down the slope before clapping his hands together and then on to the ground as soon as he hit. The earth around his feet weakened before coalescing around his ankles and swallowing his feet. He looked up and noticed the ensemble carts, horses, men, women and children.

Jirobo was polite but not particularly kind, he did have a morally contradicting nature, however, and hurting children was past his line. Cracking his neck he decided a less lethal approach **[Snake, Dragon, and Boar] "Doton: Iyou Rando**/ Earth release: Odd land." He said quietly. The technique, however, was anything but quiet.

Vibrations slithered across the land towards the moving caravan causing horses to cry out and flee, carts to fall and create pandemonium as some of the people dropped flat to the ground and covered their heads.

"Nice one, fatass" Was Tayuya's passing shot as she jumped pass with flute in hand. She settled on a rock overlooking the caravan and quickly began to play her flute _'__**Mateki: Urawakai no nemuri**__/Demonic flute: sleep of the youthful.__**'**_ soft musical notes were played from her flute which trailed down to the caravan putting those without any Shinobi like chakra levels straight to sleep. It was not the most powerful of her songs but very effective when wanting to keep the public blind to events without need of bloodshed.

Ukon, Orochimaru and Kidomaru landed alongside the caravan with Hebi-kun pointing to the back ranks of the caravan. Before any other movements were made Ukon suddenly held up a hand and the other two jumped back as the once sleeping men and women stood up and swiped at them.

Kidomaru frowned as he looked upon the men and women, he took careful note of their stances, their movements, but what stood out more were their eyes, eyes that had dished out death on many occasions, rogue ninja. _'Sloppy, Midori, Orochimaru's going to mess me up for this one.'_ He cursed his luck before whistling deeply.

The Rogue ninja were pulling out weapons; even the children had a shuriken or two in hand. It was astonishing how practiced they seemed, almost like a decade old and experienced ANBU hunter team which meant they had been playing innocent and killing easy targets for a very long time.

Jirobo heard the whistle and frowned, orders were orders and it seemed the enemy were more than expected. The caravan was quite large and that meant quite the level of destruction, this also meant a lot of chakra as well. He slapped his hands together **[Snake, OX, Bird, Dragon, Snake, Tiger, Monkey, Boar, Ox, Hare, and Snake] **He raised his hands into the air and back down "**Doton: Retsudo Tenshō**/Earth Release: Tearing Earth Turning Palm!" He shouted before wincing at the huge drain on his chakra. '_I need a lot more practice with this technique'_

The earth around and underneath the caravan was thrown up and upturned, huge streams of dust and rock stretched down the length of the road, smashing and grinding against one another in pure destructive force as tons upon tons of earth stone and rock did their best to smash, smother and pulverise anything in-between them. The rogue ninja were surprised by the technique, more so because of the scale, most were not fortunate to jump above the smashing, biting earth that decimated the caravan and buried all those not lucky enough to get out.

Kidomaru glanced over his shoulder towards Jirobo's position in surprise; he had never seen a Jutsu like that and never expected something so high level from Jirobo. He landed on a giant boulder overlooking the carnage and those that had survived. There were no children but a boy around the same age as himself had been pretty quick on his feet to avoid the Jutsu. There were only twelve of the rogue ninja left along with the two sound ninja. He smirked at that, he would kill the other twelve and play with the sound ninja.

The boy in the group looked around him for a moment as if undecided on what to do, as if his loyalty was being tested. One of the rogue ninja said something to him in a harsh tone and that must have set his mind because the next second the boy was jumping away while going through some hand seals. **[Ram, Horse, Snake, Tiger] **"**Raigen Raikōchū**/Lightning Illusion: Flash Pillar!" he shouted.

"Cover your eyes!" Ukon shouted from somewhere and the other sound members did the same, he noticed that Orochimaru was staring straight into the jutsu as if trying to read it. He was not too surprised, this was probably a genjutsu and Orochimaru had the odd ability of seeing through most, and then using it himself.

Regardless of what Orochimaru was doing, the boy turned into a brilliant source of light that dazzled the other rogue ninja and threw half of them into an illusion of death and pain. "Tayuya!" Kidomaru called out, he knew that this was a visual genjutsu but that meant there was a chance the enemy would cover their eyes but not their ears.

"I know," she replied, quickly brining the flute up to her mouth. '_**Mateki: Mugen onsa**__/_Demon Flute: Phantom Sound Chains_!'_, The flute played a haunting chakra filled melody that sent the rogue ninja including the sound ninja into a demonic illusion of restricted arms and melting flesh from bones. The screams confirmed the success of the technique and sent a small smile across Tayuya's lips as she heard the fitting harmony to enhance her song.

"Leave the child alive, finish the rogue ninja, I will deal with the traitors, kukukuku," were Orochimaru's orders and Kidomaru felt slightly sorry for the sound ninja. Whatever their fate, if it involved Orochimaru then it was one no one should face. The flash of light subsided and Kidomaru took this moment to reach inside his mouth and pull out his nenkin; golden sticky thread, to form three short forearm crossbows which he attached to his left arms. He then reached into his mouth to pull out twelve sharp, thin arrows with hooked tips; Orochimaru had stolen his fun so now he had to improvise.

He held four arrows in each of his right hands and quickly pulled them back on each crossbow whilst he looked down his left arms to aim at the immobile rogue ninja. "Akai, you hungry?" He asked humourlessly as hundreds of white baby spiders crawled up his arm and onto the arrows. He released the arrows and they screamed towards their target, ripping through the air and moving at a speed that blurred and distorted their image. Even if the ninja had their sense and could see the attack coming they would never have been able to avoid it.

The twelve arrows pierced through their targets, the pain snapping them out of the illusion. It was funny, despite the speed and power behind the arrows; they pierced the targets with little resistance and even less impact due to their slim points. The pain itself was so minimal that the Shinobi were actually surprised to see the arrows but even more so when Kidomaru tugged them back almost as if he had them attached by string.

Kidomaru smirked at their reaction; the string he had attached to the arrows was so slim and powerful that the average Shinobi would not be able to see it. He began to laugh when they started to scream, it seemed Akai had begun to enter the wound the arrow had created. He watched in interest as the Shinobi shook and screamed, falling to their knees, clawing at the ground, gasping for air. The next bit had shook him the first time he saw it when had first used the brothers but now he had gotten used to it. Suddenly white spiders the size of a hand started to burst from inside the ninja and make their way outside, they tore through chest, stomach, mouth, back, legs, arms, you name it. Kidomaru glanced at Tayuya who was biting her inner lip at the horror taking place before her; he turned his eyes to Ukon who was standing in front of boy who had let off that flash bang like jutsu.

They seemed to be having a standoff of sorts, silent, identical expressionless masks and oddly relaxed, as if they were just hanging out. Kidomaru knew better, however, he could sense that the two were imminent from an exchange of fists and blood. Kidomaru made a long corkscrew like arrow that he quickly shot into the air. It made a loud high pitch whistling sound as it ascended which was the regroup signal, Ukon remained where he was, which was fine. Kidomaru wanted Jirobo to move up and Tayuya was a sitting target once exposed like she was. He jumped towards the pair as Jirobo made his way towards him right behind Tayuya. They landed alongside Ukon who did not even flinch at their arrival and neither did the boy.

The guy was roughly the same height as Ukon, maybe an inch or so taller. He had pitch black hair, so black that he suspected it was not a natural dark brown and really was shadow black, like that Nara clan. His hair was pulled back but messy in the rear and relatively short, at least above the shoulders. He had sharp eyebrows above blue eyes with scars of white turning them into an ice blue that was extremely piercing, almost demonic, ghostly, soul seeing gaze. He was lean, more so than Kidomaru and Ukon, even more so than Jirobo if you were to look at it in proportion of weight and size.

An unnerving duel scream made the boy look towards where the sound ninja and Orochimaru were. The sound four, however, did not even turn to look, they had been scarred enough and the sick shit happening to their right was something above even Kidomaru. The boy snapped his face away with an appalled expression; he looked troubled and rightly so.

"Why did you help-"Tayuya began to say before Ukon raised a hand to stop her. She glanced at him, pissed off, but she decided to wait, she would find out eventually.

There was a long pause that continued before they heard the approach of Orochimaru, Hebi-kun wrapped around his neck. Kidomaru just about caught Hebi-kun swallowing an eyeball before Orochimaru offered him the scroll which he quickly swallowed before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

He turned his attention on the boy, an almost loving smile decorated on his face, a smile the sound four knew all too well. "What is your name, boy?" He asked as if he knew something no one else knew.

The boy answered immediately, "Muugen, Muchitsujo Muugen," this set a frown on the sound four's faces. The name was either very presumptuous or ominous, neither was good. "I helped you because these bandits killed my family and took me hostage," He added, noting Orochimaru's speculative gaze. There was a tightening of his jaw as he mentioned his family.

"He's telling the truth," a small spider whispered in Kidomaru's ear. Akai must have put one of his spiders on this Muugen character and was reading for any fluctuations. Kidomaru glanced at Orochimaru and nodded.

"Then you have nowhere to go, no purpose?" Orochimaru was looking at him as if he was a rare ingredient of some kind. Muugen hesitantly shook his head, he wondered if turning on the bandits, rogue ninja, was the right idea, this pale looking guy was freaking him out. "Then come with me, serve me and find your purpose there,"

Muugen glanced at the sound four, searching their faces for any sign that more was at stake here than the snake guy was letting on. Ukon's face looked slightly bored, Tayuya had a mixture of annoyance and curiosity in her face, as if someone was offering her something explosive and she was indecisive whether to trust her instincts or the offer. Kidomaru gave him the "You're fucked" look and Jirobo seemed like he swallowed something with a weird taste, not unpleasant but not quite…something…

"Okay…" The moment the words left Muugen's lips he regretted it, the smile that widened even more on Snake-man's face was like a hunter's after seeing a rabbit land into his trap.

"Excellent"

"Why did you not kill him when you had the chance? Now I've got another weakling to babysit." Was Sakon's, apparently justified, complaint. They were in the headquarters' resting room, one of the only rooms above ground with natural sunlight coming through the curtains. The room was pretty nice too, white walled with a soft floral pattern along the edges, Sakon had even demonstrated his painting skills by drawing an image of Raijin on the wall to the left of the door. The sound six, now including Muugen, were sitting around a conference table, the blood on one of its legs told a brief story of how Sakon used it to beat a merchant to death after he called him out for cheating in roulette game.

Kimimaro was present for once, resting on an overly fluffed cushion as his eyes inspected the new member who was currently adjusting the big purple rope around his waist. Tayuya was sitting in a large Throne with high arms that she rested her wrists on like some ruler. Kidomaru was sitting on a stool he had 'found' in a hotel owner's home. He was currently writing an appeal to Kyoudaigumo to spare Midori and work with him, offering a lot of sacrifices in return. Ukon retuned inside his brother who was currently venting his anger. Jirobo was drinking some red tea while reading a scroll on summoning and contracts.

"Give me a fucking break, Sakon. He helped us, made the job easier and Orochimaru was already pissed about the storage room, I wasn't going to make it worse." He glanced at Kimimaro as he mentioned the store room.

Sakon turned to regard Kidomaru before looking at Muugen who looked up at him and gave a weak smile. Sakon frowned at that. "I don't like his face…, or his eyes," This caused Muugen to frown and send a glare Sakon's way.

"Orochimaru-sama has chosen, accept it," Kimimaro commanded. Sakon ground his teeth at that but made no further comment. Kimimaro focused on Muugen then, looking him over, "capabilities?"

Muugen stared back for a moment, confused. "You obviously know some ninjutsu, and you were move like a ninja, who are you? Where are you from?" This came from Tayuya who began to undo the bandages around her head holding her hat.

Muugen looked down at that, his face morphing through an arrangement of different emotions, he sat down on a stool thinking about where to start. "Well, my name is Muchitsujo Muugen, not the best of names, but my Father liked cool names regardless of how they would reflect a person…" He seemed to fall into silence before continuing. "Anyway, I was born somewhere in Kaminari no kuni but I was raised in Kumogakure, but not as a ninja. My parents were afraid that I would be taken away and become part of the village's Shinobi. They had already lost my brothers and sisters to fighting and I was their youngest and last child."

"Kumogakure-nin, they have some powerful ninjutsu over there and skill." Kidomaru spoke up remembering his near death encounter with three Kumogakure chuunin. That was one hell of a battle.

Muugen tilted his head at that, unsure of the assessment. "I trained, though. Despite their disapproval. I just wanted to learn more about who I was and what I was capable of. Despite what I said, my brother and sisters were not ninjas, they were proficient with kenjutsu, apparently, but that was it." Sakon chose that time to go and take a seat in his furred lion seat. "The kumo-nin caught on and my parents fled with me. My father was a low class merchant but a merchant is a merchant and you can always spot one from a mile away." His hand tightened into a fist. "They ambushed us, fifty to three, my mom and dad were in their late fifties and were never fighters, I took down a dozen before they killed my parents to break me and take me hostage, maybe to try and convert me to their cause."

There was silence at that but a few sparks of electricity snapped off his body and they could see his muscles tense as his teeth clenched. He took a deep breath, quelling his anger and rubbing the hatred out of his face. The sound five sat silently as they watched him get his bearings. They all knew what it was like to lose everything and that sent flickers of pain and regret flashing over their faces, they were not sympathetic, however. They lived in a harsh world, and getting weak at every sob story you heard was just going to make you weaker or dead.

He looked up suddenly as if remembering, "Yeah, capabilities, let me think…" He covered his mouth in thought as he looked down and to the side. "I actually don't know that many genjutsu, three or four. I'm really good at deception and laying traps, especially laying traps in battle." He looked up as Kidomaru had a look of approval, staring in contemplation at the ceiling, Jirobo as well while Sakon looked less unimpressed. "I know how to use Nintaijutsu but just don't have the power yet, I know some lightning ninjutsu but it's pretty unrefined…that's it" He looked back up coming out of his recollection.

The other sound members digested that and thought about how he could be combat effective in conjunction with their own abilities. He seemed like a front liner and a rear man, the kind of guy who could lead an assault and cover the retreat.

"What about you guys, where did you come from, how did you wind up here?" It was almost innocent how he asked it, oblivious to the can of worms even the others had not asked one another. It was almost an unspoken law, perhaps because Tayuya was the most recent member and had never asked the others when they joined.

"I'm Jirobo of the south gate, Doton specialist, close to medium range fighter. I-" He hesitated, glancing around before looking Muugen straight in the eye. "I was born in Iwagakure, my father sold my family off to pay for his debts… I joined Orochimaru-sama to kill the walking piece of shit, it was great." There was an evil smile etched across Jirobo's face as he thought to how he spent five hours beating his father to death. "My mother died to disease and my two sisters were killed by their master for not whoring out their bodies to him." He finished quickly, glancing towards Kidomaru.

"Tschigumo village, nice place, bandits paradise though. Never knew my mother or father, had a little sister who killed herself by sealing herself in the golden sticky thread. She went to sleep and never woke up again, she didn't have too much control over the power. I was shitting myself, I thought I would soon follow her, met Orochimaru, he promised to teach me…yeah" Was Kidomaru's easy response, it was obvious he was quite detached from the whole experience. "Oh, any range, I have preference for medium or long range, special spider silk and summoning."

Sakon began before Ukon separated from him and spoke up. "Tsukigakure, Our parents were killed in an earthquake while escaping from Orochimaru-sama, they owed him, they died, he took us in since we were six. 'Nough said" He glanced at Sakon who was baring his teeth at his brother's interruption. The sound five were amused by that, thankful that Ukon had kept Sakon's ass shut. No one wanted to hear the shit that usually comes out of his rear end at the moment. "Close-range…and sealing jutsus"

Kimimaro was next "All ranges, Bloodline limit Shikotsumyaku; Dead bone pulse. Born to the Kaguya clan, Kirigakure, I am the only survivor. Orochimaru-sama found me and gave me a purpose he-" he began before being interrupted.

"Long range, Kusagakure, like everyone else, lost family, Orochimaru-sama." Tayuya said. Kimimaro meant well but he was an Orochimaru fanatic and once you got him started he would never shut up. Everyone looked at Tayuya in speculation at her brief description. She finished undoing her bandages and Muugen was taken aback at how shockingly beautiful she was, what with the beautiful long hair, sharp eyelashes and stubborn expression. He looked away coolly at that, Sakon openly stared and Tayuya caught his look before rolling her eyes in disgust.

"Anyway," Ukon began he turned to Muugen again "You're going to need to train with us and learn some sealing techniques." This brought everyone's attention away from Tayuya and back to the topic at hand.

'_The only girl in this sausage fest and another one joins, great…'_She thought irritably.

The sound five; Tayuya, Sakon/Ukon, Kidomaru, Jirobo and Muugen were currently in the epicentre of a lake surrounded by dark green trees uproot in marshland surrounding the edge of the lake. The sky was dark but there was sunlight peaking along the clouds in the midday. The sound five were sitting cross-legged in a circle with a ram or tiger seal while moulding chakra. Muugen had suggested increasing their chakra reserves and concentration, an idea Sakon had initially rejected before the others ignored him and did it anyway.

Usually, the most natural way to mould chakra was to just train, something the sound five were not known for. Oh, they trained their jutsu's but not their body or mind. Kidomaru was the only one who was naturally good at chakra control and moulding due to his body and techniques having a high level of supplementary effects, and anyone who was anyone would tell you supplementary jutsus needed a hell of a lot of chakra control.

"Grrrgh!" This came from Sakon, surprise, surprise. It seemed Sakon had ants in his shorts because he could not just stay there and concentrate, and so he had to vent. It was partially odd because Sakon had very good concentration when it came down to it, not so much in battle when he got heated up. Regardless, Kidomaru was getting an itch to get up and kick Sakon in the head and that was interfering with his concentration which projected onto the others.

Muugen sighed before opening his eyes and looking at Sakon who instantly sensed the look and sent one back. The others sensed the rising tension and opened their eyes in a mixture of annoyance and frustration. "What's the problem?" Muugen asked.

"You're the problem!" Sakon shouted, standing up and pointing a finger at him, "You've been with us for two months and now that you have the sealing jutsu down you've been acting like a hot shot, giving out orders like you're the boss. Who the fuck do you think you are!" He accused.

Muugen reached into his pocket and pulled out some gum which he quickly threw into his mouth before offering the others some. Kidomaru took some and so did Jirobo, Tayuya reached for some but stopped at Sakon's almost furious glare, as if he would kill her if she did. _'What a typical alpha male…cool_' Muugen thought to himself in interest.

"To be fair, Sakon," Jirobo slipped in as the strong clearance smell from the gum burned through his nose. "He does make good suggestions, you got to admit; painting the third wire was a pretty smart move, you fell for it."

Sakon shot a venomous look Jirobo's way, "I thought you ate babies not dick, Jirobo, because you're obviously in love with him."

Jirobo just shrugged off the insult, Tayuya did better in that department. Jirobo performed the tiger seal, closed his eyes and concentrated on his last battle, turning the experience into mental energy. Kidomaru quickly glanced at the water he was sitting on before striking down and pulling a large fish out of it. Sakon used his knife apparition technique to summon a needle which he expertly struck into the epicentre of the fishes left brain lobe, paralysing it. Jirobo was forced out of his meditation to look at the fish, it was half the size of himself and had teeth made for ripping.

Muugen stood and sighed at the intrusion in their training. When he joined the sound five, now six, they were unique but that was it. There only defining battle feature was that an enemy's experience and training would probably do them little good against them. The sound four were very inefficient, even with Orochimaru's training, it seemed like he had trained them to be specialists in their one unique area as well as teach them sealing techniques. There was quite a difference in those confident in their abilities and those accepting the need to get stronger, in the Shinobi world that meant more options, options which Tayuya and Sakon lacked. Kidomaru was well rounded and could easily support himself, attacking and defending at the same time, minimizing risk while maximizing offense. Jirobo was a kind of tied turner, a guy who could pull powerful jutsus out of nowhere and take the enemy by surprise.

"Perhaps we should talk about each other's strengths and weaknesses…,Ukon too" He added, he had a suspicion Ukon had more abilities than Sakon himself.

The other sound members looked among one another, another good suggestion but not one they were prepared for. Sakon knew the others would chew him out while the others expected a lot of flak from Sakon, Ukon was the only one not worried.

Silence

Tayuya glanced at Muugen, mentally commending Muugen for trying to be considerate. For someone who had lost his family and seemed to be guilt tripping over it, he was surprisingly thoughtful and bright, better than the egos and bullshit the others spread around. There was Jirobo, well, Jirobo was just a fat ass.

Kidomaru was feeling quite mean today, he had got a letter last night from Akai telling him how he was going to mourn the death and consumption of his brother, Midori, to Kyoudaigumo, which meant his best spider pair was gone. Shitting on Sakon would be a good way to alleviate some stress.

"Right then, Sakon" He paused _'Sakon…Sakon, suck on'_ he smirked at the sudden thought before continuing, noting Sakon stiffening. "You fight like a retard…"

A bird far off in a tree watched the lake suddenly blow up into a shower of water, shouts, fist and working aggression with mild interest. The sky chose that time to lighten up, as if the sun wanted to have a closer look at the fighters.

Muugen landed back and away as Sakon met Kidomaru in a flurry of rapid fists and kicks. Sakon dropped down and swept his right leg out, hoping to take Kidomaru off his feet. Kidomaru jumped and Sakon carried on his momentum and spun into a jumping roundhouse kick with the same foot that Kidomaru managed to duck under but he could not escape as Sakon's following left foot shot at Kidomaru and launched him back. Kidomaru slid across the water surface due to the force before jumping back again out of instinct rather than anything else as five kunai shot down at where he just was.

Tayuya landed beside Muugen and watched the two battle it out. Her eyes narrowed in thought before turning to Muugen with surprise and…respect, he could not tell. "You brought them out here so they could not use their jutsus." She guessed, searching his eyes for any falsehoods.

Muugen smirked as he looked down at her, "Well, Jirobo uses Doton and Kidomaru uses jutsus that are more effective among trees and clustered surroundings and I already spoke to Ukon about not helping Sakon out" He almost broke out laughing at Tayuya's look of shock. "It wasn't easy…" he said between laughter

**Four hours ago**

Muugen was cleaning the bottom of his sandals outside on the balcony of the tree house. Orochimaru had moved bases to work on some Edo Tensei jutsu, it sounded powerful but he wondered why they needed to go somewhere else for it.

_Knock, Knock, Knock_

He looked up and smiled at a wood pecker going to work on a tree, his favourite type of bird, fairly numerous in Kumogakure and a pain in the ass for anyone trying to have a sleep in. He remembered when had tried to catch them only for them to be too high or too quick, he remembered how the other kids used their chakra to stick to the trees like a spider and run up them effortlessly. It was magical, like the ability to fly or go anywhere and anyway you wanted to. He recognised it was the wood peckers in Kumogakure that partly took him down the path of the ninja. All the training, the practice to use chakra to attach his feet to wood which led to the eventual tree climbing and water walking. He still could remember the feeling of triumph as he ran up the tree and caught the bird, gentle hands.

The lack of Shinobi training led him to develop his skills and chakra in unconventional ways, improving his chakra control ahead of his years which he _thought_ he had kept hidden from the kumo-nin.

He stopped scrubbing and thought about his parents. The warnings about how becoming a Shinobi would separate them, how it had destroyed his brother and sisters before he was even brought into the world. If he had listened and took after his father, focused solely in the merchant side, the sales, the exports…

"Hey," Muugen looked up from his regrets, pretending to brush away a lock of hair while hiding the fact he was checking for tears. Relieved he found none, he recognised Ukon walking towards him. Why could no one else tell the difference between the two, well, Kidomaru could but he did his very best trying to only recognise one for the other.

"Hey, what's up?" He tried to sound accepting but failed. Ukon walked up to the balcony and leaned over the railing, inhaling and exhaling deeply. The Muugen guy was that guy who tried to make everyone happy, he had seen it before in Sakon before he grew his left nut, still missing the right. These were the people everyone took advantage of, showed no respect and practically used them to wipe their asses and they'd take it with a smile. Ukon had forced Sakon to grow up, when someone talked smack about their dead parents, Ukon had forced Sakon to reach into their mouth and pull out their tongue.

That 'I'll clean up your crap with a smile even if I don't want to' attitude would tear him up in the Shinobi world. "I heard you called a training session for this afternoon a little after lunch and you wanted to speak to me about it."

Muugen nodded as he stood up and put his sandals on. Cleaning your sandals was one of the things he heard the instructors talking about when he overheard them one time. Any advantage was a lifesaving one, if having more friction then your enemy allowed you an advantage then take it. That was the basis for a lot of his cleaning and maintenance, it was weird, actually putting the overheard conversations and lessons to use. "Yeah, you seem to be the kind of guy good at listening and it kind of concerns your brother." He started.

Ukon glanced over his shoulder at him before looking back out to the forest.

"Just by looking at you, I know your fully capable, even more so than your brother," Ukon did not reply even when Muugen was silent for a response. "I have a feeling you'll never purposely show what your capable of because you're always in your brother. But what about him? Is he formidable on his own, do the others know so or, at least, think so?" There was an odd note of worry in his voice that threw Ukon off.

"Sakon's pretty strong without me, a very high…genin level, maybe low chuunin," Ukon's eyes roamed the forest even though he was not taking a bit of it in. He honestly never liked to talk about his brother behind his back, good or bad, it was hard to put into words why. Perhaps because they were closer than most brothers, not emotionally but they had this interconnection that was so unlike others, almost like they shared the same mind.

"I know that, but could he even take on Kidomaru without your help, Jirobo? Not to look down on her, but even Tayuya?" Muugen insisted standing up and moving to look over the railing and up toward the wood pecker.

Ukon considered that for a time, seriously weighing the pros and cons of his brother. Kidomaru, no chance. Even together it would be pretty damn hard to take him out and that was the problem. . Kidomaru could and would prolong a fight much more than Sakon could, this was due to his fighting style being very offensive while keeping out of reach and Sakon was not a defensive guy. Jirobo was almost as bad but he was confident Sakon could at least go toe to toe with him. Jirobo did have the advantage of his Doton and he had a knack for turning the tide and absorbing your chakra without it being noticed. Tayuya was tricky to judge but she was very vulnerable, only her curse seal helped and even then, she never had huge chakra reserves to keep up a battle of attrition. Her genjutsu's were good but not enough to stop Sakon who could break them easily enough, she could not outrun him either.

Despite these facts, Ukon could not force himself to bring his brother to light, it was not enough, he realised. He only had the advantage because he knew them and their weaknesses. If the others engaged an enemy ninja they had never faced, they could force the enemy to stay on guard due to their unique abilities for some time. Sakon, without his brother, had very few tricks up his sleeve, in fact, his main trick was Ukon, and he could not even summon the Rashoumon on his own.

Ukon hung his head at the realisation, shamed for his brother and at himself for stunting his growth. "All I need you to do is let him fight his own battles and mould chakra on his own when we're training, he'll only get better for it." Muugen spoke up.

"Why?"

Muugen was taken aback by the question "huh, why?" He was truly confused, why not?

"Why go out of your way for Sakon, he's tried his best to show you he doesn't like you." Ukon turned to look at Muugen then, interested in his response. What Muugen was trying to do was not unusual for a team member wanting to strengthen his team, but Sakon had been a real asshole to him ever since he joined them.

Muugen sighed and then smiled, looking up towards the gap in the trees that framed the clouds. He could see faces and shapes in them, some he was happy to see and others he was not. "Sakon is like me in a way," Muugen began, startling Ukon who thought the same. "Not in personality but circumstance. I don't know him, but I do know he's playing a game without all the pieces, the pieces he can use. That mistake cost my family, I was playing a game of life thinking it would never hurt me, if I relied on my parents to keep me out of the Shinobi world then I could practice the art but never be touched by the attention it brought." Muugen picked up his sound head band and examined his reflection in the sunlight.

Ukon watched as his smile morphed into a sad one. Some people may have found it odd that he thought that expression was refreshing.

"It's not just Sakon, Tayuya as well, but I don't know how to approach her she's-"

"Got her flute up her ass" Ukon supllied, eliciting a grin as Muugen burst into laughter.

"Standoffish was the word I was going to use, but yeah, if the enemy disarms her; bam!" He used a punching gesture to pronounce his onomatopoeia. "I just don't want them to be taken out for weaknesses that they could refine and strengthen, you know?"

Ukon scratched his head at that. He had never really cared for Tayuya. She was a sound Shinobi, always angry, always expressing with her mouth and four letter words, he preferred fists to her vocabulary. Worst of all, she had not been tied, a slang term for made barren, so she got hormonal and she could summon up a storm when she was PMSing. He had, at one point, caught her crying about something Jirobo said, what he had said was beyond him, whatever it was it had hit her pretty hard. He had tried to say something but she had turned a hateful look his way and stalked off. "I guess, yeah," he met Muugen's ice blue eyes "But you've got a fight waiting for you,"

**Presently**

Kidomaru leaped into the air with his three crossbows attached to his left forearms aimed down at Sakon. He pulled out three arrows with odd, curved and bent shapes before pulling them back on the bows strings and releasing. The arrows moved in the oddest way making them unreadable as they shot down towards Sakon. Sakon was frozen for a moment before he cancelled the chakra he sent down to his feet and fell into the lake, barely avoiding an arrow that grazed his cheeks.

Kidomaru landed with a frown at the lake water. _Reduced visibility for him and reflected for me. He can't move as well but I won't be able to control the subtle movement of my arrows even in level two._ 'Kidomaru observed carefully and used the chakra at his feet to move him back. _'Staying on the surface is bad for me but my golden sticky spider thread will dissolve before it forms in water. I need to know where he is, at the very least_'.

Kidomaru jumped into the air, as high as he could while creating a tiger seal with his lower arms and ram seal with his middle arms to help mould a significant amount of chakra. His cheeks inflated before spitting out a magnificent quantity of webbing across the entirety of the lake, _'__**Kumosokai**__/_Spider Web Unrolling_! _He then grabbed a few silk silvers of webbing as his web began to blanket the surface of the lake before slowly sinking, _'followed by __**Kumo sokei**__/Spider Web Area!" _ Chakra shot out from his fingers and down the lines of his web, small and precise, the large area meant he would have to use chakra in proportion to how much he wanted to sense and without the right chakra control this would drain his chakra down to his reserve tank.

He landed on the water and waited as the web sank more and more. Sakon would not be able to see the silk usually and it would be impossible in the water, not to mention his oxygen tank was running out even if he was using his chakra to recycle it. Kidomaru felt a powerful force of chakra on his line before he suddenly cut it in panic. _'Shit, he was using the chakra line to use his parasite demon technique to try and take over my body. But now I've cut my line and can't find him and that's probably what he wanted. There are ways to counteract the parasite jutsu but a third of my chakra is already gone._' Gold started to appear all over Kidomaru's body and clothes. The gold quickly changed colour to mimic Kidomaru's previous appearance and he sighed as his chakra took another dip.

'_Still, he needs to be in level two to do that and it must have drained his chakra quite a bit. The web I sent down won't be as sticky in water but he should be struggling and that should drain his air supply quickly.' _No sooner had he thought that that bubbles started to storm up from his left followed by an explosion and a gasp of air as Sakon blasted free of the water. Kidomaru smirked, reached into his mouth, and pulled out a four stared tipped arrow with webs coming out of each tip. He took a forearm crossbow from his upper left arm and attached it to his middle right forearm. He clasped his middle hands together and pointed them towards the still airborne Sakon, using the string from both cross arms, he pulled the arrow back and released. The arrow shot up but was not nearly as fast as the other arrows and he would have avoided until it split suddenly into four directions while creating a square spider net connecting them. Sakon shouted curses as he was caught by the spider web and was quickly rolled up by Kidomaru who used the thread connected to the arrow pieces to wrap him into an aired cocoon. The chakra in the web made sure it would not sink into the lake.

The other four met back up with Kidomaru as he crouched beside the cocoon and whispered, "And you're nothing without your brother," He stood up and looked towards the others. Muugen was surprised at how well Kidomaru did against Sakon, true, he never expected Sakon to win but Kidomaru had an easier time of it than he thought.

Jirobo was chewing on the fish Kidomaru had caught. He had cooked it by simply blowing it up, the left overs were well-done, just the way he liked it.

Tayuya crouched and listened to growls and curses of Sakon. Shaking her head, she stood up with a frown, glancing to Kidomaru with a pensive look. _'Great, now Sakon will come to me to rant about his problems, fuck sake!'_

She turned to look at Muugen followed by the rest. Muugen was thinking over the battle before he jumped at their expectant gaze, slightly surprised but it was not unwelcome. He straightened, glanced at Ukon before speaking up, "Well, I guess we start with Sakon…"

"Kukuku," Orochimaru chuckled as he glanced up at the fight and the attention of the sound four on their newest member. He was sitting cross-legged on a soft green cushion with a low table in front of him. A large bowl full of sake with eagle eggs bouncing and bobbing in them hinted at a post lunch snack. Directly in front of him on the table was a blank scroll that he was writing a jutsu into. It was a space time ninjutsu that allowed him to place special south and north markers or, A and B markers. With it he could place his hand in A and it would come out of marker B. The downside was the chakra requirements to set up the markers was quite large, if he wanted to make the markings large enough for a fall human to slip through then that would drain half his chakra supply easy! It needed refinement.

He looked up as he heard shouting from, the now freed, Sakon. He had yet to properly see Muugen in battle, in fact…

He laughed as he placed down his brush and used the body flicker technique to appear in their midst. The Shinobi jumped back in a defensive stance before quickly kneeling in reverence to their master. Orochimaru surveyed the children, noting Ukon and Sakon were still separate, was this the first time Ukon bowed to him?

He turned on Muugen then, "Boy," He summoned and Muugen responded by standing and moving forward, nervousness showing through his calm mask of indifference. "To earn respect is to show your power. You will go against the sound four, four against one, ah, five against one." He added noting Ukon again. Muugen glanced at the other sound-ninja who were glancing among each other.

The look of pure glee on Sakon's face was ominous. "With _pleasure_, Orochimaru-sama. On me!" He shouted as he jumped away. The other sound-nin jumped towards Sakon but they cast uncertain looks over their shoulder at Muugen who looked like a deer that just stumble upon a sleeping lion. Orochimaru nodded at that with an evil cackle before using the body flicker jutsu to transport back to his table and cushion. He sat down and folded his legs, reaching out and taking an egg to quickly swallow down. He punched his chest as the snake in his throat tried to take his meal. A long pink tongue slithered out of his mouth as he laughed.

He may have found a substitute for Kimimaro.

Authors notes…

I am not really going to be posting author notes anymore. Though unforgivably late, I have learned that fanfiction is for the readers and the story, not for the Authors ramblings. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and any comments or reviews are welcome.

Thank you for reading!


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